Cycling at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Women's BMX racing

Women's BMX racing at the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad
Olympic BMX cycling
Venue	Vélodrome National de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines
Date	1–2 August 2024
Competitors	24 from 17 nations
Winning time	34.231 sec
Medalists
Saya Sakakibara   Australia Manon Veenstra   Netherlands Zoé Claessens   Switzerland
←  2020 2028  →

The women's BMX racing competition at the 2024 Summer Olympics took place on 1 and 2 August 2024 at the Vélodrome National de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.

Background

This will be the 5th appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics since BMX racing was added to the programme in 2008.

Qualification

Main article: Cycling at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Qualification

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to three qualified cyclists in the BMX race. Quota places are allocated to the NOC, which selects the cyclists. There were 24 quota places available, allocated as follows: ^[1]

• UCI nation ranking (17 places): The top two NOCs each earn three places. NOCs ranked third to fifth each earn two places. NOCs ranked sixth through 10th each earn one place. Each continent was guaranteed one place.
• UCI elite individual ranking (three places): Outside Europe and Oceania, the highest-ranked NOC will secure a single quota place at the BMX continental championships for Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
• 2023 & 2024 World Championships (four place): The remaining four spots will be allocated to the top BMX riders competing at the 2023 UCI World Championships in Glasgow and at the 2024 Worlds in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
• Host place (one place): Host nation France was guaranteed one place.

Competition format

The competition was a three-round tournament, with quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. In each round, the cyclists raced around a 400 metres (1,300 ft) course with jumps and banked turns. The competition proceeded as follows: ^{[2] [3]}

• Quarterfinals: three heats of eight cyclists each. Each heat had three runs, using a point-for-place system (one point for the winner of a run, two points for second, etc.), with the lowest points over the three runs winning. The best six cyclists in each heat (12 total) advanced to the semifinals, and the riders ranked 13–20 move to a last chance qualifier. In the last-chance qualifier, those eight riders race one time, and the top-four finishers advance to the semifinals, while the others cyclists were eliminated.
• Semifinals: two heats of eight cyclists each. Again there were three runs per heat, using the point-for-place system. The top four cyclists in each semifinal (eight total) advanced to the final; the others (eight cyclists) were eliminated. In both the quarterfinals and the semifinals, riders are reseeded for the next heat according to time. If two or more riders are equal in points at the end of three runs, the times will be used to break the tie.
• Final: one final of eight cyclists. There was only a single run.

Schedule

The event will take place over two consecutive days. ^[4]

All times are Central European Time (UTC+2)

Date	Time	Round
1 August	20:20	Quarterfinals
	22:15	Last chance race
2 August	20:15	Semifinals
	21:50	Final

Results

Quarterfinals

Rank	#	Name	1st run		2nd run		3rd run		Total	Notes
			Heat	Time	Heat	Time	Heat	Time
1	77	Saya Sakakibara  (AUS)	1	34.549 (1)	1	34.376 (1)	1	34.515 (1)	3	Q
2	911	Beth Shriever  (GBR)	3	34.688 (2)	2	34.421 (2)	2	34.590 (2)	3	Q
3	11	Alise Willoughby  (USA)	2	35.459 (4)	3	35.033 (3)	3	35.483 (4)	3	Q
4	44	Molly Simpson  (CAN)	3	35.752 (5)	2	35.508 (6)	1	35.311 (3)	7	Q
5	61	Manon Veenstra  (NED)	1	35.872 (6)	1	35.042 (4)	3	35.520 (5)	7	Q
6	110	Laura Smulders  (NED)	1	35.076 (3)	3	35.728 (9)	3	35.792 (8)	8	Q
7	31	Daleny Vaughn  (USA)	2	36.099 (9)	3	36.482 (14)	2	36.360 (10)	8	Q
8	2	Zoé Claessens  (SUI)	3	36.018 (8)	2	35.423 (5)	2	36.393 (11)	8	Q
9	21	Lauren Reynolds  (AUS)	1	35.952 (7)	1	35.564 (7)	1	35.589 (6)	10	Q
10	22	Merel Smulders  (NED)	1	36.137 (10)	3	35.760 (10)	3	35.649 (7)	11	Q
11	94	Nadine Aeberhard  (SUI)	3	36.588 (12)	1	35.654 (8)	2	37.099 (17)	15	Q
12	13	Axelle Étienne  (FRA)	3	36.354 (11)	2	1:00.895 (24)	1	36.050 (9)	16	Q
13	14	Gabriela Bolle  (COL)	3	38.211 (20)	2	37.266 (17)	2	36.593 (12	16	q
14	100	Mariana Pajón  (COL)	2	37.832 (19)	1	35.847 (11)	2	36.823 (14)	16	q
15	203	Paola Reis  (BRA)	1	37.101 (14)	2	36.259 (12)	1	36.998 (15)	16	q
16	175	Malene Kejlstrup  (DEN)	2	37.270 (16)	3	36.762 (15)	3	37.629 (20)	16	q
17	7	Leila Walker  (NZL)	2	36.974 (13)	1	36.288 (13)	1	38.347 (22)	17	q
18	218	Veronika Stūriška  (LAT)	1	37.206 (15)	3	37.007 (16)	3	37.120 (18)	19	q
19	215	Aiko Gommers  (BEL)	3	37.315 (17)	2	37.329 (18)	1	37.362 (19)	19	q
20	85	Sae Hatakeyama  (JPN)	1	DNF (24)	1	37.953 (19)	1	36.720 (13)	20	q
21	230	Alina Beck  (GER)	2	38.371 (21)	3	39.874 (21)	3	37.017 (16)	20
22	23	Felicia Stancil  (USA)	2	37.732 (18)	1	46.155 (23)	2	37.763 (21)	20
23	101	Shanayah Howell  (ARU)	3	39.325 (22)	3	38.889 (20)	2	39.492 (23)	23
24	209	Miyanda Maseti  (RSA)	2	43.011 (23)	2	42.401 (22)	3	43.210 (24)	23

Last chance race

Rank	#	Name	Time	Notes
1	100	Mariana Pajón  (COL)	36.015	Q
2	85	Sae Hatakeyama  (JPN)	37.068	Q
3	14	Gabriela Bolle  (COL)	37.373	Q
4	175	Malene Kejlstrup  (DEN)	37.375	Q
5	215	Aiko Gommers  (BEL)	37.819
6	7	Leila Walker  (NZL)	38.362
7	203	Paola Reis  (BRA)	2:14.343
8	218	Veronika Stūriška  (LAT)	2:15.767

Semifinals

Heat 1

Rank	#	Name	1st run	2nd run	3rd run	Total	Notes
1	77	Saya Sakakibara  (AUS)	34.162 (1)	34.847 (1)	34.189 (1)	3	Q
2	61	Manon Veenstra  (NED)	35.016 (3)	35.178 (2)	35.543 (4)	9	Q
3	110	Laura Smulders  (NED)	36.165 (4)	35.128 (2)	35.610 (3)	9	Q
4	11	Alise Willoughby  (USA)	34.892 (2)	36.624 (7)	34.833 (2)	11	Q
5	13	Axelle Étienne  (FRA)	37.202 (6)	36.244 (5)	36.413 (4)	15	Q
6	100	Mariana Pajón  (COL)	36.802 (5)	35.649 (3)	40.796 (7)	15
7	94	Nadine Aeberhard  (SUI)	DNF	36.334 (6)	36.517 (5)	19
8	175	Malene Kejlstrup  (DEN)	37.493 (7)	37.861 (8)	37.454 (6)	21

Heat 2

Rank	#	Name	1st run	2nd run	3rd run	Total	Notes
1	911	Beth Shriever  (GBR)	34.297 (1)	34.339 (1)	34.326 (1)	3	Q
2	2	Zoé Claessens  (SUI)	36.235 (5)	35.206 (3)	34.848 (3)	11	Q
3	44	Molly Simpson  (CAN)	35.599 (2)	35.953 (4)	36.349 (5)	11	Q
4	21	Lauren Reynolds  (AUS)	35.814 (3)	35.917 (4)	52.185 (8)	15
5	31	Daleny Vaughn  (USA)	36.181 (4)	37.333 (6)	36.910 (6)	16
6	14	Gabriela Bolle  (COL)	37.232 (6)	36.199 (5)	37.795 (8)	19
7	22	Merel Smulders  (NED)	REL	37.459 (7)	35.057 (2)	19
8	85	Sae Hatakeyama  (JPN)	37.600 (7)	38.154 (8)	37.207 (7)	22

Final

Rank	#	Name	Time	Notes
	77	Saya Sakakibara  (AUS)	34.231
	61	Manon Veenstra  (NED)	34.954
	2	Zoé Claessens  (SUI)	35.060
4	110	Laura Smulders  (NED)	35.745
5	44	Molly Simpson  (CAN)	35.833
6	11	Alise Willoughby  (USA)	36.171
7	13	Axelle Étienne  (FRA)	36.273
8	911	Beth Shriever  (GBR)	36.496

References

1. "Qualification System – Games of the XXXIII Olympiad – Cycling BMX Racing" (PDF). Union Cycliste Internationale . 15 April 2024. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
2. "Cycling BMX Racing". Tokyo 2020. Archived from the original on 29 June 2021. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
3. Liam Nee (26 March 2021). "Cycling 101: Competition format". NBC. Archived from the original on 28 June 2021. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
4. "Olympic Schedule – Cycling BMX racing", Olympics.com . Retrieved 21 July 2024.